I have lived my whole life in Gloucestershire. I consider myself to be very, very lucky. I lived in Wiltshire for a few years, but it never felt right. My bones and being are here. Let me tell you why. If you do not know the area and are thinking of moving here and want to check out Gloucestershire Private Schools such as this one https://hopelands.org.uk/. There is much that children can learn.
I grew up in a suburb village just outside of Cirencester, the Capital of the Cotswolds. The parish church dominates the urban and surrounding landscape. You cannot escape this building, it is only a few inches off being classed as a cathedral. Next to the town it is the landscaped Cirencester park where I was able to roam, climb trees, build dens and dodge the wardens. It was on the way to my secondary school and I got to walk home through it’s tree lined ways in all the seasons watching the changes in the trees and passing the time of my own ageing through my teenage years.
Away from Cirencester there was the picturesque Regency town of Cheltenham with its dreaming spires of the University of Glos at St Francis Close hall and the other dreaming spires of the altogether different types of the race course. To the North of the country I could find the honey coloured Cotswold stone villages of the Slaughters and Snowhill. The manor there at Snowhill being the quirkiest property the National Trust owns. Further on is Stow on the Wold and the rolling countryside of the North Cotswold littered with round barrows and long barrows.
Moving back south I come to Gloucester. The Historic docks and spectacular Cathedral a magnificent reminder of the Cities faded glory. This is also reminds me of the Roman past this place has with many villas such as the one in Chedworth and the towns of Corinium and Glevium where even the remains of Walls and Forums stand still.
Head west and I find myself in the Forest of Dean. An entity in itself it does not always feel part of the county. I have spent many activity days and weeks here. Luckily in the autumn when the leaves all turn ruddy. The quiet of majesty of Symonds Yat and it’s view to Wales and back to Gloucestershire, plus beyond on a clear day is outstanding. Back over the Severn and heading south I can see the outline of the Cotswolds on one side and the Forest on the other I pass near Painswick Beacon, the highest point and see down to Slimbridge the home of many wild birds. Coming to the end of the county I ascend again to revel in the beauty of the Stroud Valleys and the wide mysterious common on Rodborough, home of Winstone’s Ice cream. On we go to the border and past Tetbury and through to the Westonbirt Arboretum. I am blessed to have lived here and truly I have counted the ways.